Raiders of the Lost Arcade references
This page lists all video game references in the Futurama episode "Raiders of the Lost Arcade". Note that the episode's title is a reference to Indiana Jones. Futurama episode Anthology of Interest II The third episode of the fourth season of Futurama (Episode 50) is about the Planet Express crew using for the second time the "What If" machine, showing three "imaginary" stories. The second segment, titled "Raiders of the Lost Arcade" has Fry asking the machine "What if life was more like a videogame?" and features many videogame references. These can't be considered a type 1 link between the Futurama series and each of the of the other series, because even if Futurama characters directly interact with those videogame elements (no matter if they do so in an alternate "what if" reality), the episode is not licensed by their respective owners, so they can't be considered official incarnations of the elements. However since the "What If" machine shows those characters and in some cases it names them, we can assume that their games exist in Futurama's main universe, creating a Type 2 link. In case of very minor references, it is still only considered a type 3 link (see each reference's specific page for details). The segment opens up with a gameplay scene from Asteroids, then the ship is revealed to be this world's incarnation of the Planet Express ship (more). The crew than watches the TV and sees that President Nixon is signing a peace treat with planet Nintendu 64, a reference to the Nintendo 64 game console. The Nintendian Ambassador is then revealed to be Donkey Kong and he attacks Nixon in the same way he attacks mario in Donkey Kong, by throwing a barrel. He then climbs the building mimicking the game's opening, and the Italian ambassador is also shown to be Mario (more). The scene changes to the military headquarters, showing that in this world it's called "Milatari HQ", referencing game developer company "Atari". A tank from Battlezone is also shown driving past it (more). A soldier guides the Planet Express crew throw the building, explaining that Fry "knows the secrets of the video game champs", and as they walk in a corridor, they pass doors labeled "Missile Command", "Secretary of Defender" and "Moon Patrol", referencing the games Missile Command, Defender and Moon Patrol. Before letting the characters enter the "War Room", its door asks the "blue key", so the soldier shows a big blue key and the door authomatically opens up without even being touched. This is considered by some a reference to the game Doom, but it's actually a reference to general video game logic. In the War Room, many screens are shown in the background. The ones on higher levels have generic maps, but all the ones at the bottom show gameplay footage from what appears to be Centipete (more). Fry is then introduced to General Colin Pac-Man, a cross between Pac-Man and real life general Colin Powell. He then guides them through a maze based on the Pac-Man game itself, featuring all elements from the game (more). While in "Pac-Man", Zoidberg starts eating Pac-dots and he accidentally also eats Fry, killing him. As Bender and Leela are shocked by that, Fry then reappears, saying "It's okay, I had another guy." Another reference to generic video game logic. The group finally escapes the maze and reaches the Planet Express headquarters by a blue pipe based on Warp Pipes from the Mario series (more). Once there, Zoidberg coughts out various items from Pac-Man (more). The Nintendian lead by Lrrr, finally strike their attack using the ship formation from Space Invaders, and are also fought back by Fry in the same way as in the game (more). Unfortunatelly Pac-Man is hit by an enemy laser during the fight and dies in the same animation as in the original game, so Ms. Pac-Man comes in crying (more). Unable to defeat the last ship, however, Fry loses the war, and the "War Over" message appears, instead of "Game Over". Then the message "Congratulations! Enter initials" and Fry enters the word "ASS". These are other references to generic game elements. After the enemy ship lands, its crew exit it and is composite by Lrrr, Donkey Kong, a green robot from Berzerk, a generic big-brained alien, Mr. Egg from BurgerTime and Q*bert from his own game. On exiting the ship, Berzerk says "All your base are belong to us," referencing the infamously poor translation in Zero Wing. Once there, Donkey Kong asks the people of Earth to hand over a million of dollars in quarters, referencing the coins used to play arcade games. Answering that they need quarters to do their laundry, the Planet Express crew finally accepts to wash Nintendian clothes for them. License Fox, that produced Futurama, didn't own any right over the various games, but they only included minor references to each of them. Category:Type 2 links Category:Links Category:Summary links